Handball Public Viewing

For the Soccer World Cup in Germany in 2006 you couldn't hardly find a restaurant without a TV screen or two, and there were all sorts of public viewing areas set up. Summer sun, a cool beer, hoards of happy strangers - the Germans loved it.

But I mean, who wants to watch a bunch of guys kick around a ball for an hour and a half, and maybe get one or two goals - yawn. Handball is much faster and *loads* of goals, so much more exciting.

So I wanted to attend a public viewing area for the Handball World Cup. Except that I couldn't find one in the capital city of Germany. I called a sports bar - are you showing the game? I mean, it is being shown on the second German channel! Naw, we have soccer on today.

Okay. The Berlin minor league team, the Füchse (foxes) had a page on their web site that there were going to be two public viewing areas, one at the agricultural fair (Grüne Woche) currently being held in Berlin, and one next to the Reichstag. I chose the latter.

My first clue should have been that I got a parking place right at the Reichstag when I drove past to see where this Berliner Pavillon was located. I didn't hear any cheering or anything, but it was still another 10 minutes until game time. I walked in - and the place was festooned with flags all over the place. A lone family of three sat at one of the tables.

I paused - driving home now would mean that I would miss the first part of the game. The mother said "Hi, now we are four!", so I sat down and had a coffee. Just before the game a group of 5 came in - now we were 9.

There were some tourists who wandered in who didn't really understand what was going on. One father and son stayed for the first half, but they didn't seem to enjoy the game. Others just ordered a beer, drank up, and left.

The restaurant owners were being so nice - made me a cheese sandwich even though it was not on the menu. I felt so sorry for them - they were probably expecting a full house.

So where is everybody? Sitting at home with chips and beer? I really do think the DHB could have made a teensy, tiny bit more of an effort to promote the games. Just selling out all the tickets is not enough.